> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://refdocs.buymeasoda.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://refdocs.buymeasoda.com/unix/find-and-search-files.md).

# Find and search files

## Find

Find allows searching file names and directories under the current location

```
find <path> <settings>
```

Exclude specified pattern from find (eg. `'*/\.git/*'` for ignoring `.git` directories)

```
find <path> -not -path '<pattern>'
```

Show files that match the search criteria. The criteria can be a literal name or use wildcards `*` (wrap non-alphanumeric search criteria with quotes)

```
find . -name '<file-pattern>'
```

Find files (`-type f`), directories (`-type d`) or both

```
find <path> -type f
find <path> -type d
find <path>
```

Find files that match the file pattern and pass results to grep for searching file contents

```
find <path> -name '<file-pattern>' | xargs grep '<search-string>'
```

Find folders that are at a certain depth with the specified name

```
find . -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d -name '<search-string>'
```

Find files containing case insensitive `<search-string>` somewhere in their name

```
find <path> -iname '*<search-string>*' -type f
```

Find files under path that match file pattern excluding those inside specified directory

```
find <path> -type d -name <dir-name> -prune -false -o -name '<file-pattern>'
```

Find files under path that match file pattern excluding those inside multiple directories

```
find <path> -type d \( -name <dir1> -o -name <dir2> -o -name <dir3> \) -prune -false -o -name '<file-pattern>'
```

Notes on using find

* `-o` is an OR operator
* `-prune` excludes directory contents from search
* `-false` when paired with prune removes pruned directories name appearing in output

## Grep

Output files with content matching (`-l`) or not matching (`-L`) the search string

```
grep -l '<search-string>' <path>
grep -L '<search-string>' <path>
```

Search files recursively for search string below path location

```
grep -R '<search-string>' <path>
```

Search using extended regex (`-E`)

```
grep -E '<extended-regex>' <path>
```

Only show matches (`-o`) and do not print filenames (`-h`)

```
grep -ho '<search-string>' <path>
```

## Advanced Grep Examples

Find files and print with sizes (Note: `-printf` is not POSIX and only available with GNU `find`)

```
find . -type f -printf '%6s %p\n'
```

Find files without `*.orig` and format output to include timestamp and path, then sort and grab the first 100

```
find . -type f -not -name '*.orig' -printf '%T+ %p\n' | sort | head -n 100
```

Show files with non-ascii characters

```
grep -P "[\x80-\xFF]" <files>
```

List all image filenames

```
ls | grep -iE ".*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|svg)"
```